...and then there was a glimmer of light!

                                                                                                Image by overthemoon

This started as a response to the amazing comments left by Adam, Naomi, Mike, Ceci & David on my latest post A Moment of Melancholy but in the end I felt it deserved a post in its own right.

I don't really know how to thank everyone without it sounding trite but last week I really was close to wanting to pack it all in. I've never felt so discouraged before and although I still can't see the whole way through the door, I can now see some light from the other side. The advice and support I received was more than I ever expected and has highlighted to me once again the amazing worth of this online world.

The first person to comment was Adam.  Randomly at the same moment he was posting his comment I stumbled across his excellent blog. I can't recommend his post Why is my class doing so well highly enough to anyone feeling remotely like I was last week. Usually when I'm in his position, loving my job and teaching a group of learners who are highly motivated I take a lot of the credit. Instead, this post takes a long, and indepth look at motivation and the reasons why a class goes well or not so well.

His down to earth advice and common sense really helped me take a deep breath and look at my class with a bit more perspective. I really liked how he said, in such situations, breaking up a course of study into small achievable goals can bring some students back from the brink.

This is perhaps where I need to focus - and since I was pretty near the brink  I'll start with some manageable goals for myself.

Goal One

Really break stuff down, help the learners see their achievements at the end of each lesson and how they are building on those achievements albeit slowly. This will require me to be much more structured. A lovely teacher who I work with has offered to sit down with me and create a clear scheme of work for the remainder of this year.

Goal Two

Help them structure their learning outside of class. Naomi  made two great suggestions for which I'm infinitely grateful. You can find them here. The first, creating labels that they could put on household objects at home, could be linked into classes. We would create the signs together then after class they'd place them round their homes. The second idea is also good and something I will encourage them to do this coming week.

Goal Three

Maintain perspective - whilst I know that I can do a much better job, beating myself up isn't going to get them or me very far. Thank you to Ceci & Mike for your calm and encouraging advice in that respect as well as a good reminder of the other factors involved.

Goal Four

Find and incorporate more varied and creative ways of re-covering vocab. I spent a productive afternoon finding some new activities for this. The best one was the iteslj website and a list from a teacher called Mark Koprowski. Some of the ideas were very familiar but others were new to me.

Goal Five

Find out more about family learning. This was David's suggestion and I think it's worth looking into. The learners were feeling disheartened because their children are learning so much faster than them. So the idea of linking that learning up and using it to help the parents makes a lot of sense and I think it's worth a try. Again see here for details.

Goal Six

Try to set up some work experience for them. The various suggestions made by Naomi, Mike, and David on the theme of outside learning made me think how great it would be for them to do some volunteering. They can't get paid work but volunteer work would give them experience and immerse them more fully into the language and culture.

So there you have it, perhaps not a wide open door but definitely a glimmer of light. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to comment, read, tweet or just simply care. Your advice,  support and presence have made a difference. Although the situation is the same I feel I have some tools and a bit of mountain perspective to take back with me into the valley.

Thank you :-)

Comments

[Alan Tait]

I'm very glad to hear about the glimmer. I was sad for you since you seem to be doing your very best. I didn't add a comment, cos I didn't have any advice that hadn't been said already.

Anyway It's great (for all of us) that you've been able to make sense of it. Hope it's just a momentary drop in biorhythms and that you bounce back properly.

[Anna Rose]

Thanks Alan... it's amazing how much talking through everything on-line really did help. Wow you made me think about my post from a different perspective and I will update it. Thank you :-)

Your wry point of view and supportive comments have been amazing throughout my blogging journey, short as it's been so far, and I'm very grateful. I often don't comment when I haven't got anything original to add... which is quite often ;-p but am still usually fascinated/concerned/diverted by what that person had to say. So thanks simply for reading and caring and obviously for commenting on this post ;-p

[DavidWarr]

I think the volunteering idea has a lot of potential. In fact, I think every ESOL college should have a list of possible posts. Had never thought about it before, but think it's a brilliant idea. It could really mushroom. (But let's not get carried away...)

[Anna Rose]

Thank you David... I can see a lot of potential in it as well :-)

I've had a set back today whilst ringing the volunteering organisations in Bradford. They've said in the current job climate they can get graduate volunteers so don't need/want my learners :-/

However, I'm sure I can find something/someone/somewhere so am going to keep pursuing it for a bit.

Thanks :-)

[Naomishema]

I'm glad to hear about the glimmer too!
I think other teachers are the only ones who understand what an emotional involvement /investment teaching is!
Thanks SO much to the link to Adam's post - very relevant and powerful!
Hang in there!
Naomi
P.S. - AWESOME photo!

[Anna Rose]

Thanks Naomi... yours and others' understanding has certainly been a lot more significant for me than I ever expected. You're welcome re the link - right post at the right time - certainly for me :-)

Yeah gotta love flickr and the generous people who share their photos!!

[Harrisonmike]

Hi Anna, like others I'm really glad that you managed to get that glimmer if light from the last post. I agree with you that the support that can be found is one of the truly remarkable things about being connected through twitter and blogs.

It seems to me that this is a great example of the reflective teacher in practice. I so admire the way in which you share with us. Please do keep it up =)

I agree with David, voluntary work may be a great thing that could help such students. We had a lady come to talk to our students about volunteering just this week. The only thing was that it was mainly aimed at entry 3 upwards... =/

Look forward to hearing more about how you get on with your goals =)

[Anna Rose]

Hi Mike

Thank you... I genuinely did gain such a lot from your encouragement and down-to-earth comments. Yeah still struggling with the volunteering idea but I've got a few more contacts that I'm going to try tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. Will try and keep an update running on how I get on with sticking to my goals ;-p Had a much better time with them this last week so feeling more optimistic again.

Thanks! :-)